NEWARK — The Rangers will be experiencing the real thing in about three weeks. For the Devils, though, the expected intensity of their latest game against their Hudson River rivals will have to suffice for playoff atmosphere.

The Metropolitan Division foes meet for the fourth and final time on Tuesday night at Prudential Center with the Devils looking to avoid being swept in the season series for the second time in three seasons.

“It feels like a playoff game every time we play them,” Devils captain Andy Greene said.

The veteran defenseman has seen some epic battles between the teams in his 11 seasons. In no particular order: the 2012 Eastern Conference final the Devils won in six games, the line brawl that opened their game at Madison Square Garden on March 19, 2012, and Rangers agitator Sean Avery waving his stick in goalie Martin Brodeur’s face and later calling the Devils’ icon “Fatso” during their 2008 playoff series.

But while the Rangers are playoff-bound for the seventh straight season, and likely locked into the Eastern Conference’s first wild-card spot, meaning they’ll cross over to the Atlantic Division bracket, the conference-worst Devils will miss the playoffs for the fifth straight season since losing the 2012 Stanley Cup Final to the Kings in six games.

As such, this last stretch of the season is all about evaluation for the Devils’ brass, testing players in different roles, gauging their responses under varied scenarios and judging who can help the rebuilding organization moving forward.

So there is certainly value to seeing how some of their younger talent responds to such a heated rivalry.

“You want to get that big-game experience and deal with the emotions and keep them in check and make sure we play the right way,” Greene said. “It’s intense. It’s always a fun game to play.”

“It’s always a big game when we play them,” goalie Cory Schneider added. “We’ve got to fight here and play for some pride. Beating them would feel pretty good at the end of the year. We haven’t had a lot of reasons to feel good about things. It’s on us. We’ve just got to keep sticking with it and finding ways to win games here.”

The Devils’ roster is stocked with players who have either spent significant time with Albany (AHL) this season or will likely participate in the AHL playoffs once the Devils’ season concludes on April 9 at Detroit.

Forwards Joseph Blandisi, 22, and rookies Blake Pietila, John Quenneville, Blake Coleman and Nick Lappin have all been getting regular turns for the Devils. But they, along with rookie forwards Pavel Zacha and Miles Wood and rookie defenseman Steven Santini, are likely to be added to Albany’s playoff roster.

Wood, 21, who has eight goals and eight assists in 50 games, skated on his own for a third straight day on Monday after crashing hard into the boards in Friday’s 6-4 loss at Pittsburgh and exiting in the third period.

He said he was unsure whether he’d be able to play on Tuesday.

But Wood, who has one goal in the three games against the Rangers, knows what he’d be missing if he can’t dress.

“Yeah, it does, to be honest,” Wood said when asked whether the thought of missing a Rangers game bothered him. “I know a lot of the guys there from Boston College — [Chris] Kreider, [Kevin] Hayes. It’s always fun to play against friends. But we’re 0-3 against them [actually 0-2-1] and we don’t want to be swept by them.”

Wood grew up in Manchester, Mass.

“I didn’t know the rivalry was as big as it is,” Wood said. “As a kid, I didn’t watch New Jersey or New York play. But now that I’m a part of it, it’s cool to be part of such a rivalry with the history of the teams.”